Event #1 at WSOP Council Bluffs

Brent Glantz

"Hey Buz!  Instead of going on break, I need you to push into Table 19.  It's that final table up front."

Event #1, a $350 buy-in tournament that began the day before with 355 entrants and a total prize pool of $103,305 had worked its way down to the final two players, Brent Glantz and Michael Nellis.  The table was set up at the front of the Horseshoe's Whiskey Roadhouse which is normally a bar and restaurant but now our WSOP Circuit Tournament venue.  The table is set up for live streaming video with one camera on the cards and another viewing a wide shot of the players at the table.

I dealt for about a half an hour pushing small pots back and forth when Brent broke through and won a sizable pot from Michael.  The very next hand Brent raised and Michael re-raised all in.  After a long deliberation, Brent called the bet.  Michael showed Ace-Queen off suit and Brent tabled a 9-8 suited in diamonds.  I put out the flop.  A Queen in the door had Michael screaming, "Yes! Yes!"  But then he realized that the next two cards were a nine and another  nine.  "Nooooo.." he groaned.  The Turn and River cards did not produce the Queen Michael was begging for and Brent captured the title with his Three-of-a-kind Nines.

For his excellent play and good luck, Brent received $23,764 and the champion's solid gold WSOP ring provided by the WSOP sponsors.

While this was not my first final table, I dealt finals before at the WSOP and at several circuit events, this was the first time I had ever dealt the absolute final hand of a major tournament ring event or bracelet event.

Council Bluffs, Iowa WSOP Circuit Event

Bike Night at the Quaker Steak 'n Lube.  50 or 60 Harleys and a few odd others like Indians, Victorys or Hondas.  Bunches of people outside, but tables available inside.  Hmmm.  Doesn't say much about the food.

We completed our work back in Lawrenceburg and headed out to Iowa.  Thinking it was a long drive, we figured on stopping about halfway in Peoria and completing the journey after a brief respite in some Peoria night stop.  Thanks to the beauty of AT&T's 3G we found some highly rated Lamb Chops at Jim's Steakhouse in Peoria which we thought a grand reward for successful completion of the Tri-State Poker event.  They were delicious and the place was old time luxury in the basement of a bunch of downtown Peoria law offices.  Onthe Internet, Barry found the Par-a-Dice Hotel and Casino just off the highway and found it had a Poker Room, so without checking in, we checked out the Poker Room.  There were two tables playing $1-$2 No Limit Hold'em and a tournament was starting up in a while which would draw more players.  Rather than napping, we played for a few hours.  We lost, but it wasn't due to being tired.  Just some unfortunate cards.  Twice I flopped a hidden three-of-a-kind top set and after all the money went in my opponent had made a hand and the board just wouldn't pair for me.  Once versus a straight, the second time versus a flush.

The Floor Supervisor checked the hotel and found that it was full.  Oops.  All the surrounding hotels were full.  We needed to drive about a half hour toward our destination in order to find a Sleep Inn along the way with available rooms.  By the time we got there Barry was napping and I was feeling good so I drove a couple hours, then Barry woke up and drove a few hours while I napped, and back to me about 70 miles from Omaha and onto the hotel.  We called and they said an early check-in would be no charge because they had rooms ready, so we were all set.

Chopping

  Often in smaller tournaments, when there is no obvious chip leader and it is getting down to the final table, players will start considering a chop.  In tournaments, most of the money is concentrated in the first few places.  If there are, say, seven players left in the field it frequently works out that in order to beat chopping the remaining money seven ways, a player would have to take second or third place in the tournament.  Consider this payout schedule from an earlier tournament:

1st	$56,861
2nd	$35,144
3rd	$23,022
4th	$15,937
5th	$11,623
6th	$8,907
7th	$7,156
8th	$6,017
9th	$5,281

With seven players left in the tournament, chopping gives each player a payout of $22,664, and to beat that, a player would have to take third, and then beat it by only $358.

Another consideration was brought up at the final table of yesterday's Senior's event.  The numbers were smaller than the above example and a seven way chop was $4800.  In an interesting twist, one player considered the tax effect.  If you cash in a tournament for over $5000 the casino is required to report the winnings on a 1099-G and winnings from gambling are taxed at the rate of regular income.  So for somebody in the 30% tax bracket, $4800 is $4800 but $5000 turns into $3500.  Even $6000 is only $4200 net after taxes.  Something to think about.

Another thing was what to do about the bubble.  In the Senior's event 35 people get paid.  When there are 36 people left in the tournament, the next player out is the bubble and gets no money.  This means that people play very carefully (and slowly) at this point in the tournament.  All tables play one hand and do not start the next hand until all tables complete the current hand - that way it can be more correctly determined who was the next player to bust.  The problem it causes is that nobody wants to play as they all wait for the next person to burst the bubble and everybody remaining gets paid.  To encourage people to play, all 36 players agreed to put ten bucks in for the "Bubble Boy".  That way, the "Bubble Boy" had already busted and the player who busted 36th got the $360.  The joke was, 35th place only paid $340.  A player busted out 36th on the very next hand. :-)

The King of Hearts is known as "The Suicide King" because of the way he is depicted in most decks as having a sword in his head.  His tendency to show up at the most morbid of times was never more evident than in a hand I dealt the other day where Pocket Aces were up against Pocket Kings.  Both an ace and a king showed up on the Flop and when the odd card, a seven, paired on the Turn both players had Full Houses and all the money went in.  The Suicide King appeared on the River to make Four-of-a-Kind Kings and knock the Aces Full owner out of the tournament.  He was not happy.  At least he got his money in with the best of it and he'll have a good story to tell when someone asks how he did in that big Poker tournament the other day.

Tri-State Poker Championships

Eleven days, fourteen events.  The tournaments have buy-ins from $235 to $1600.  Drove up from Tampa with my buddy Barry - former actor, computer tech support, skydive instructor, poker player and current professional poker dealer.  We took the new Mustang.  Conveniently, I-75 runs from Tampa up through Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, directly to Cincinnati, just across the Ohio River from the new Hollywood Casino.  Hard to get lost when all you need to do is stay on I-75.  Not a difficult drive with good weather and alternating drivers.
While the check-in was pretty smooth and seamless when we worked the Chicago event, we were considered "vendor employees" at the Horseshoe.  At the last minute our managers discovered that the Hollywood decided they wanted a little tighter security and required that each of us get valid Indiana gaming licenses.  Makes check-in a little more hassle.  Forms to fill out, HR processes to go through, drug test, and we actually have to apply for a gaming license through the casino's HR department. Getting started here is a little more difficult.  While things were really smooth in Chicago, the same management crew is having a little more trouble this time around.
Woody Allen once said, "80% of success in life is just showing up."  What makes it a lot easier is when management lets everybody know with certainty when and where they need to be.  They've been having a little trouble with that this time around.  It is a new venue for this team.  I'm sure they'll get it together.

The challenge the casino has is that they while they would like to put on a big splashy poker tournament and get hundreds of players to show up at their casino, they don't have enough Poker Dealers to handle it.  Steve and Charlie to the rescue!  They contract with casinos all over to provide a crew of dealers to work the events.  They support the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the World Poker Tour (WPT) as well as other regional events like this one.  Depending on the gaming laws in each state and the requirements of each casino hosting the event, the dealers might be independent contractors, vendor staff or direct employees of the casino.  To deal the tournaments, dealers may or may not need a gaming license from the state, but if they want dealers to handle cash or deal any cash games outside of the tournamens, the license is required.

The different combinations are interesting.  When I worked New Orleans, we were paid as independent contractors rather than employees, but we still needed to get a Louisiana gaming license to deal.  In Chicago, we didn't need the license but were Horseshoe employees and were restricted to dealing the tournaments.  We couldn't handle cash or cash value casino chips.  For Iowa, we have been told that we will get a license and simply be added to the current dealer crew and take shifts at the cash tables as well as the tournaments.  Now here at Lawrenceburg, we have gone through the Penn National Gaming HR support process and are regular, temporary casino employees.  Later today we will complete the gaming license process.  That will free us of the restrictions of non-gaming employees and allow us to deal any table in the casino.  No word yet on whether we'll take advantage of that.  Cash games are nice because you usually get to keep your own tips.  We'll see how it all plays out.

No longer a "rookie" dealer putting out the river card at the 2012 Chicago Poker Classic.